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Disclaimer: I do not own R5, The Vamps, 5 Seconds of Summer, Dan Howell (danisnotonfire), Joe Sugg (ThatcherJoe), Caspar Lee or Phil Lester (AmazingPhil) - all rights go to Hollywood Records, Virgin EMI/Mercury Records, Capitol Records & YouTube.

Chapter 26
Thank You

Luke got onto the plane where the warhead was and opened up the chamber to disarm it. He cut the red wire and waited for ten seconds – but it didn't disarm. Next, he cut the blue wire and it still didn't disarm. He started to become a little nervous as he found the black wire – which was the last wire to cut and the last hope of getting the warhead to disarm. He found it and cut it, waiting for ten seconds for it to disarm.

Those ten seconds passed where he expected the warhead to disarm and shut down completely.

But it never.

His eyes widened and his heart started beating faster "No..."

He ran off the plane where he was greeted to Ashton, Dan, Nate, Renzo, Phil, Rydel and Calum who were coming towards the plane. "Guys, it won't disarm. It won't stop." Luke said.

"That means it's going to blow up and detonate no matter what..." Ashton said, as a silence fell over them all – whether if it was because they were nervous and scared or if because they were thinking of a way to at least attempt to get it to disarm or out of the way where it wouldn't do any harm to anyone.

"What are we gonna do?" Rydel asked "we can't let it take off..."

"We're gonna have to." Calum said, not seeing any other way of stopping this.

"What? And let it explode right here at the base and destroy the entire state and surrounding cities?" Luke questioned, finding it unbelievable Calum would even think about doing that to innocent people.

Calum shrugged "Well I don't know where!"

"How about somewhere, where there's no life?" Dan asked.

"Like where? There is life literally everywhere." Ashton said.

"Alright, maybe somewhere that doesn't have as much life."

Rydel raised her brow, being a little confused at how they would find somewhere that didn't have life or barely had any "Where? The only place that has barely any life is the ocean apart from some fish."

"That's perfect," Luke said, as if a light bulb just went off in his mind. Everyone turned and looked at him as if to say he was crazy. "Think about it. These warheads are only powerful enough to take out a city and some of its surrounding towns... The ocean is huge. If you find a part of it that is bigger than a city and its surrounding towns it won't do any damage apart from contaminate the water and kill some fish." Luke explained.

"Yeah but it'll also create a back lash and ripple effect," Ashton said "it'll cause a man made tsunami and flood the towns or islands of the countries near to that ocean."

"Well, it's better than them being blown up and in-habitual for god knows how many thousands of years." Luke said.

Ashton sighed, because Luke literally had no clue and didn't think about one small part of this plan he had come up with "It's true, but... you're also forgetting something... What ocean and who's going to put it in the ocean? Because the person who puts it in the ocean is going to have to die 'cause they can't throw the warhead out of the plane and into the ocean whilst they're driving it... They'll have to drive the plane into the ocean and by the time it's in the ocean the driver will have no time to get out. The warhead will explode and they'll be dead. And a plane can't drive by itself."

Luke stayed silent as he hadn't thought about that part at all – it hadn't even crossed his mind that in order for this to happen and for the world to be saved... someone had to die.

Who it would be was the even bigger question and thought.

Luke looked back to the plane and ran back onto it, hoping that there would be a world map in there in one of the compartments or drawers. He dug around for a short while until he found one and ran back outside onto the runway where the others were.

He put the map onto the floor for everyone to see "I don't know how much fuels in the plane so we need somewhere close." Luke said, as they all began to look around the map for the ocean that looked the biggest and barely had any countries or islands near by.

Dan pointed "There. Between South America and Australia. That doesn't look like it'll cause a lot of damage." Dan said.

"Yeah but isn't the Great Barrier Reef there?" Renzo asked, where Luke and Ashton looked at him bemused "what?"

"No. The International Dateline's there. The Great Barrier Reef is near Queensland in Australia." Ashton said.

"Are you sure?" Renzo asked.

"Trust me. I think I know my stuff when it comes to Australia."

"So we're going with the Pacific Ocean? Smack bang in the middle." Dan asked/said.

Luke nodded "Yeah. The man made tsunami will only take out a few islands – if there is any there. And it'll maybe flood a few towns off the coast of Australia and South America. Maybe. But it's better than them being blown up and letting innocent people die." Luke said, trying to convince himself that this was the right decision.

It was wasn't it? He wasn't going to regret it later on, was he?

"Right, okay... So now that you have the location... Who's gonna sacrifice their life to do it?" Rydel asked, not wanting to bring a damper on the situation but unfortunately it was the only way this plan was going to work.

"Well... Between me and Ashton, I'm the only one who can fly a plane." Luke said, making Ashton look at him as if he was insane. Dan looked between Luke and Ashton.

Luke sighed, knowing that Nate and Renzo haven't had the chance to learn how to fly a plane – and with the condition of 2037 he doubts Rydel and Calum have "Do you know how to fly a plane, Phil?" Luke asked, looking at him and Phil just shook his head sadly "thought so... Well... I better get on with it." Luke said, standing up to go to the plane.

"No, Luke!" Ashton said, jumping up and holding/hugging him tightly, obviously not wanting him to go and do this.

Luke tried to move to get towards the plane but he couldn't move at all due to how tight Ashton was holding onto him with his arms wrapped round him "Ashton, let me go, I have to do this."

"No, you can't."

"I have to otherwise this whole place gets destroyed – I'd rather it be an island than an entire city."

Ashton pulled away from the hug and looked at him sadly, desperate for him not to go – he was almost in tears. The tears shone in his eyes and he sighed 'cause even though they had both fallen out and have been horrible to each other these past few days, he still loves Luke more than anything.

Luke seen the tears in his eyes and wrapped his arms around him "Come here," He said, pulling him in and kissing his head in the process until they were wrapped up in a hug "listen to me, if there was another way to go about this, I'd go with that one. If I don't this place will blow up and kick start a war slowly and basically... What we did would have been for nothing. I'd rather die knowing we saved the world than die knowing we didn't."

As this happened, both Dan and Phil watched them sadly.

"I'm sorry for how I've been treating you these past few days – it's only cause I care." Ashton said.

Luke held him tighter "I know," he pulled away from the hug "I love you."

"I love you too."

The pair shared one last kiss together before pulling away and gazing at one another for one last time – which was when they heard the map rustle as if someone was picking it up.

"So, the Pacific Ocean, yeah? Right in the middle? I can find that easy." Dan said, where Luke and Ashton turned to see he had hold of the map and was looking at it.

Luke furrowed his brow "What?"

"I mean it shouldn't be too hard to find," Dan said, looking away from the map and at Luke and Ashton "we're in Utah which means the ocean is West of us... Like I said, I'll find it easy."

"And I'll repeat what Luke said. What?" Ashton asked, stepping towards Dan as he couldn't get a break "you can't!"

"What? Luke can't and now I can't? C'mon, Ash, make up your mind." Dan said, trying to lighten up the situation even though the sadness was evident in his eyes.

"But... Why? We need you."

"You need Luke more," Dan said, almost immediately as if he knew Ashton was going to say that "look... Out of all of us here, me and Luke are the only ones that can fly a plane – I doubt Rydel and Calum learned whilst living in the state their 2037 was in. You and Luke need to be together because you belong with one another and always have done – and if I play any part in keeping you both together, then I'll die happily. I'll also die happily knowing the world is in safe hands and is going to be saved because I know it is. Plus... I don't matter. I'm not the one who's saving the world, I'm just tagging along and helping to make sure nothing gets in your way."

Ashton stayed silent before something occurred to him "Yeah, you do matter."

Dan let out a small scoff "You're just saying that to make me feel better before I die."

Ashton shook his head, standing closer to him "No I'm not... You really have no idea do you..." He said, making Dan confused "none of us would be standing here right now if it wasn't for you. Brad would be dead and the rest of us would be at home – heck, Brad probably wouldn't even exist. Caspar would be miserable being here by himself and where the hell would Joe be? Better yet, where would Phil be?"

Dan shook his head, still being confused "Ross saved Brad's life... Not me."

"You're still no—I know Dan, I know. I know what you and Phil did – I know about the idea you both came up with. The one about these certain four, five or six people. AKA me, Luke, Brad, Ross and Rocky?" Ashton asked, making Dan's face fall to an 'ohhh' kind of look "if you didn't do that – the both of you – then... who would be here trying to save the world right now?"

Dan fell silent "Well, when you put it like that," He said, making Ashton laugh a little "I'm still driving the plane though."

Ashton sighed "I know." He said, even though he really didn't want him to.

Ashton hugged him and he hugged back "Thanks for being a great teacher." He said, as Dan had taught him how to fight and the majority of the stuff that he knows now.

"No problem. Thank you for saving the world." Dan said, as he knew that once he takes the plane and drives it into the ocean with the warhead, the world is pretty much saved and all they need to do is get rid of Priscilla, Maxwell and Harvey.

Ashton pulled away from the hug and shook his head "No, Dan. We didn't save the world... You did." He said, due to Dan and Phil's little idea that turned into one that quite possibly saved the world.

Ashton stepped away from him.

"What about the video message you sent us?" Renzo asked.

"As long as someone else records it with the same information, it doesn't matter," He said, he looked over at the plane and at everyone else "see ya." He turned round to leave.

"Dan, wait... I need to tell you something." A voice said that Dan kind of recognised but he didn't.

He turned round where he seen Nate looking at him "Did you just say that?" Dan asked, confused.

Nate nodded "Yeah... It was me..."

"Wait, what?" Renzo said, now being just as confused as Dan as he thought Nate couldn't speak English – he could only understand it.

Nate rolled his eyes "Oh, come on, Renzo, really? Understanding English but not being able to speak it? That's bullshit and you know it yourself." He said, due to the fact Renzo would have had to have learned to speak English before becoming here from Italy.

"I'm confused... I thought you couldn't speak English at all..." Dan said.

"I may have lied to have you on for a little while 'cause I thought it would be funny," He said, smirking whereas Dan let out a small laugh in a 'I-should-have-known' kind of way "if it makes you feel better, I've been having everyone on. Not just you."

Dan let out another laugh, being unable to comprehend the fact he had basically been lead on for six or so months.

"As Ashton said... Thank you for being my teacher," Nate continued "you were amazing, super nice, great and... funny 'cause you couldn't understand a single thing I was saying," He said, making Dan smile a little "thank you for teaching me everything I need to know. If it's anything like Ashton, I know it'll pay off."

Dan smiled at him before going over and giving him a hug, Nate hugged back. "You know the one thing you taught me that I won't forget?"

"What?" Dan asked.

"How to procrastinate like a pro."

Dan laughed and pulled away from the hug, smiling at him and shaking his head "I'll see you later, Nate, I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too. Now go before that thing blows up!"

"Oh, shit, yeah, fuck!" Dan said in panic, turning round to go to the plane but he stopped and turned back round, facing Rydel and Calum "one last thing before I go... I think I may have figured something out about Michael..." He said, where Rydel and Calum both tensed up "I'm not gonna tell the others, I promise – I kinda can't because it's a secret I'm taking to my grave. Quite literally. But... is it true?"

Rydel stayed silent, thinking about whether or not she should tell him the truth or lie. She broke her silence soon after deciding to tell the soon-to-be-dead man the truth "Yes. It's true." She said.

"Are the others ever going to know?" Dan asked.

Calum shook his head "No. Only one of them... As for the rest of them... Some things are better left unknown."

Dan nodded "Right..."

He turned around and gave Phil one last glance saying "bye", still being hurt at the fact he couldn't remember him – but it hurt Phil too at the fact he couldn't.

Dan ran to the plane and got on-board, shutting the door and getting into the seat, making sure that everything was okay before starting the engine. It started and he began driving it down the runway to take off as everyone watched.

Phil watched as the plane drove off, being sad he couldn't remember his best friend.

His best friend that was now flying to his death.

The best friend he'd grown up with.

The best friend that would follow him wherever he went without so much as an argument or protest.

The best friend who convinced him to leave him behind in England to come here and work at the base if it made him happy.

The best friend who he came up with the idea of the situation Brad, Ross, Rocky, Luke and Ashton have.

The best friend who he showed up to work drunk with at the base because they went out the night before and never got back till an hour before their shift.

That best friend.

Phil furrowed his brow before his eyes widened in realisation "DAN! NO! WAIT COME BACK! DAN!" Phil shouted, suddenly remembering everything about Dan and everything they ever accomplished together.

But it was too late.

The plane had left the run way.

Dan was gone.

Next: Not Over Yet

Can we just appreciate the fact that this is the first time Luke & Ashton have said "I love you" to one another out of all the BRRAL stories.

I am refusing to believe that there is one chapter left until the final one.

Soz to everyone who's favourite character was Dan lol

I'm just gonna let you all have a shitstorm in the reviews.